


Just Another Friday Night

by Moontyger



Category: Birds of Prey (Comic), DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-30
Updated: 2012-04-30
Packaged: 2017-11-04 15:09:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/395217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moontyger/pseuds/Moontyger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For most people, Friday nights were for dates or parties, a celebration of the weekend.  For Babs and Dinah, things weren't that simple.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Another Friday Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xylaria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xylaria/gifts).



It was a warm summer night with a full moon high above, the sort of night that many might call romantic – perfect for a couple to linger outdoors and enjoy each other's company. Too bad for Barbara Gordon that she was both a cop's daughter and a crimefighter; if she'd ever considered nights like this romantic, it had been too long ago for even her to remember clearly. No, summer nights with moons like this were meant for working, because they lent themselves to crime and violence as much as they did to love.

Which was why she was here, alone, sweating in a heavy costume on a rooftop instead of out on any sort of date. Staying low in case someone was watching, she scooted closer to the edge to get a better view. There, down below, that looked like a fight could be developing. But even as she watched, it ended on its own, the parties involved stalking off in different directions.

It was for the best, but she couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. Barbara shook her head at her own foolishness. She'd just have to keep patrolling; there was bound to be action somewhere out there tonight.

She shot a jumpline over to a neighboring building, took a step forward and jumped. She swung over the city, enjoying the freedom and exhilarating sense of weightlessness – when a low, all-too-familiar electronic tone shattered the night around her.

Awake now, the dream slowly fading, she reached out and fumbled the headset on before her eyes were even open. “Oracle here.”

Dinah's voice came through strong and clear; she might have been in the room instead of on the other side of the city. “You sent me to check out this building tonight, remember? That tech company you found so suspicious?”

“I remember.” Barbara opened her eyes to a night much like the one she'd been dreaming about, thoughts clearing as she sat up and tossed the blankets aside.

“Were you asleep?”

Barbara didn't answer, concentrating on lifting her legs and moving them over the side of the bed before using the rails on the wall to lift herself into her chair.

“You were! It's barely dark on a Friday night!” She didn't need access to a camera to picture Dinah's expression; her voice made it clear enough. “Such an exciting life you lead.”

“Like you're much better. I don't see you out living it up tonight.” Mobile now, she was headed for her computer even as she spoke.

“That's because you're such a slavedriver.”

“Uh-huh.” Password entered, the holographic screens came to life around her. A few more taps on the keyboard and she'd found a camera that gave her a good view of the building in question. “What you're looking for should be on the twelfth floor. Are you ready?”

“Good to go.”

“All right.” She called up the programs she'd written for this job and prepared them for deployment. “Good to go on this end, too.”

“Got it.” Dinah walked into camera view, moving so gracefully in heels that one might have thought she'd been born in them. Barbara couldn't see her face from this camera, but she watched as Dinah used the ID card they'd faked to open the door of the building and went inside, heading toward the security desk. The way she moved drew the attention of the guard there like a magnet; if she hadn't been concentrating on work, Barbara might have been envious. She'd never had that kind of charisma, but it came as easily to Dinah as breathing. Now, though, she was grateful for it - it was easily enough of a distraction to let her use the first program. Now Oracle saw through the building's security cameras, while the guard would only see what she wanted him to see.

“My boss called – can you believe it? Friday night and he's sent me to get files from the office.” Dinah leaned on the security desk, wearing a petulant expression. “I told him it could wait until tomorrow, but he insisted.”

“That's too bad. A pretty girl like you should have better things to do on a night like this.”

Barbara tuned out the rest of their conversation, turning her attention to the elevators and any alarms hooked up to the system. “Your ID says you work on the ninth floor. You'll have to climb from there.” It took a key to go to the twelfth floor – a key she hadn't been able to get access to. It was better this way – best not to risk anyone seeing the elevator on a floor it had no reason to be on.

A few minutes later, she was watching Dinah ride up, arms crossed over her chest and foot tapping impatiently for the camera. The guard might be watching – this part, Oracle couldn't safely blank. Dinah exited on the proper floor, heading purposefully for the office where she supposedly worked. It was only once she was inside that Barbara felt safe altering the camera image.

“Three floors?” Dinah complained while she changed into her costume. “Couldn't you get it any closer?”

“Sorry. I thought you'd be fine.”

“I will be. That doesn't mean I'll enjoy it.” Now that only Babs was watching, Dinah's expression was all business, her flirtatious smile gone as though it had never existed.

Oracle overrode the elevator door on another car, opening it to nothing but the cable. With a grimace at the dirt and grease in the shaft, Black Canary entered and started to climb. “Sometimes I think you make things harder on purpose.”

“What can I say? I thought you liked a challenge.”

“Oh, I _do_ ,” Dinah agreed, waiting for Oracle to open the door and allow her onto the twelfth floor. When it opened, telltale ding silenced, she leapt through, landing lightly on her feet. “But this isn't a challenge. It's just grunt work.”

“Put on the goggles.”

Barbara watched as Dinah adjusted them, then gave a low whistle. “That's a lot of motion-sensing lasers.”

“Can you handle it?”

“Are you kidding?” Without another word, she launched herself in the air, acrobatically avoiding the beams with a series of moves that looked like a particularly intense gymnastics routine. Barbara shook her head at herself and her reaction to the display Dinah was putting on for her audience of one - a sharp stab of something she was too honest to call admiration. Dinah wasn't as good at this part as Dick was, but it was still impressive. 

“All right, what now?” Dinah had landed again, opening corridor safely traversed. She was panting, but only a little.

“Just a second.” The blueprints for this floor had been hard to find - deliberately erased by someone who knew what they were doing. Luckily, they weren't as good as Oracle and she'd managed to find them despite their efforts, slowly piecing together scattered fragments of data until she had the whole thing.

“Second door on your left.”

Still wearing the goggles, Dinah followed her directions, entering an empty conference room. “There's a door in the back, on the right.”

That door led to an office filled with expensive furniture – leather chairs and a mahogany desk that matched the bookcases lining the walls, none of them imitation or particle board.

“All right, move that middle bookcase on the right wall – there's a door hidden behind it.”

It had to be heavy, but Black Canary moved it with ease, leaving it turned 90 degrees from its usual position as though it were itself a door.

“Press about midway down on the left – there should be a trigger.” It took a couple tries, but finally, there was a click and part of the wall slid aside, revealing a steel door with a keypad lock.

Barbara zoomed in on the keypad, magnifying it until she could get enough of a look at the pattern of wear on the keys to guess the code. “Try 7015.”

With a hiss of released air, the door swung outward. Cautiously, Dinah stepped inside. She shoved the goggles up onto her head, eyes wide as she looked around. “Wow. Are you seeing this, O? What are those – robots?”

“I see it.” Barbara zoomed in on the metal body parts displayed around the room, gleaming faintly under the fluorescent lights set into the floor of each circular display area. “I don't think those are robots – they're armor.” 

“Someone can wear these?” Even sub-vocalizing, Dinah sounded awed. “They'd have to be huge.” 

“At the end of the hallway, turn left. There'll be another door.”

“What am I doing here? What is this place?”

“Get me that download I sent you for and we'll find out.”

When Dinah reached the door, Barbara cursed under her breath – there was a fingerprint and retinal scanner attached.

“Hold on – this will be tricky.”

Tricky didn't quite cover it – what she was doing was supposed to be impossible. But in Barbara's experience, few things were, not if you knew what you were doing and were determined enough.

“Hurry up! It's cold in here.”

“Almost got it... there. You're going to have to lean into the retinal scanner – it's easier to fool it into seeing the wrong retina than making it think it sees one when there's nothing there to read.”

Dinah grimaced, but she didn't question. Her faith paid off – the door opened.

Inside was another office, but unlike the earlier one, this one wasn't made for display. There was nothing on the walls and everything in it was steel and glass, even the laptop on the desk.

“Open it up, turn it on, and insert the flash drive.”

“I hear and obey, O master.” Barbara shook her head, but she didn't have time for much more. This computer wasn't connected to the Internet, so she'd had to send Dinah in to take a look at the files. Unfortunately, that also meant she'd had to prepare attempts to override the security program blind.

“Select the first file on the drive. Double-click it.”

“Couldn't you have sent someone else? You know I hate computers.” Frowning, Dinah followed directions, then shook her head. “Access denied.”

“Keep going; one of those programs should work.” She hoped.

“Isn't this what you do? If this was all you wanted...” She fell silent and lifted her head, eyes narrowing. “I think someone's coming.”

“Take the drive and get out of there.”

Dinah glanced down, but paused, hand on the drive. “Wait, I think it's working!”

“Dinah -” But Barbara knew better than to argue. She hated this part, the times when it was driven home to her that while she came up with the missions, in the end, there was only so much she could do. When things went wrong, it was up to her agents to handle it. She could offer what help she could, but in the end, what they did was their call, just as it was their lives at risk. She _hated_ that loss of control, that sense of helplessness, but there was nothing to be done about it. Maybe one day, she'd learn to accept that.

“Ok, ready!” Dinah grabbed the drive and pocketed it, heading for the doorway. She'd barely gotten it closed when she had to hide behind one of the displays in the room beyond, huddling behind a giant disembodied pair of legs. She and Barbara both watched as three men in business suits strode through the room, heading toward the office she'd just left.

The men might have been dressed as businessmen, but neither of the Birds were fooled. “They're from the League of Assassins! What's going on here?”  


“Just get out for now, Dinah.”

“I could -”

“No. We're not ready for them to know you were there. It's time to go.”

The men turned the corner and the Canary was off, making her way out as fast as she could. “At least they turned the security system off,” she breathed once she reached the elevator bank without having to dodge motion sensors.

For once, the rest of the mission went smoothly. A few minutes later and Dinah walked out of the elevator on the ground floor, back in her original dress and with files in hand. Cover secured, she paused to wave goodbye to the security guard. “Thanks!”

“As for you,” she continued, once the door had shut behind her and she'd gotten far enough away that she wouldn't be visible to anyone inside the building. “You owe me one.”

Barbara laughed, full of the elation that always came from a job successfully completed. This one was even better - this time, there had been no serious complications. “Come on over and you can collect. How does some chocolate raspberry truffle sound?”

“You know me so well. I'll be there in thirty.”


End file.
